有才！将银河系信号谱写成成美妙的布鲁斯曲

Interstellar space is mostly a vacuum, so there is no medium that can carry sound. In other words, space is totally silent. But astronomers have often associated the movement of heavenly bodies with music. With the help of modern technology, one astronomer has turned the signals from the Milky Way into a funky tune.

星际间一般来讲是真空的，所以并没有介质可以传导声音。换句话说，星际一片宁静。但是天文学家经常将天体运动与音乐联系在一起。在现代科技的帮助下，有天文学家将银河信号谱成了一首流行曲。

It was an idea that I had for a long time, said University of Massachusetts Astronomy Research Professor Mark Heyer, "and only recently has some of the technology come about that somebody like me could access that."

马萨诸塞州大学的天文学学者Mark Heyer说：“有个想法长期萦绕于我的心头，最近出现的科技突破才使得像我这样的人能使之成为现实”

The visible light coming from distant worlds carries a lot of information that can be analyzed with a spectroscope. Heyer developed a computer program, or algorithm, to convert the movement of large clouds of atoms and molecules of different elements and compounds, into music.

从遥远世界发出的可见光携带着能够被分光镜分析的大量信息。Heyer研发了一项计算机程序，或者说是算法，能够将由不同元素和混合物组成的大粒子云团的运动转化成音乐。

I take the spectrum and I, essentially, mathematically resample that to a musical scale and that gives that spectrum, which is inherently atonal, it gives it the tonality. And that is what really is the key stuff to make it sound nice, he said.

“我采集光谱，本质上我用数学重新定义了一个和光谱对应的音阶，这就赋予了本来无调的光谱以音调。这也是让它听起来还不错的真正关键。“他说。

Heyer randomly assigned different musical instruments to different gases, forming a combination consisting of a saxophone, a piano, an upright bass and some percussion woodblocks. For instance, a certain atomic gas, which fills much of the space between the stars, is represented by the upright bass.

Heyer将不同的乐器随机分配给不同的气体中，形成了一个由萨克斯、一架钢琴、一个立式贝斯和一些木质打击乐器组成的组合，例如，立式贝斯代表一种能填满星星之间大部分空间的原子气体。

It gives you that driving pulse, I think, that drives the music forward. And the woodblocks sort of do that as well, he said.

我认为，它给了你推动音乐前进的驱动力。而木头(这是代指前面的木质组合乐器吧)稍微也能做到这一点，”他说。

After some experimenting, Heyer decided to use the pentatonic minor blues scale.

许多次的实验之后，Heyer决定使用五音阶小布鲁斯音阶。

I was experimenting with the algorithm and I had major scales and simple minor scales, but when I first played the available segment of just one of the instruments, it sounded like that could be a very nice blues or jazzy sound to it, he said. "So, I recrafted the algorithm so it could transform the data into a musical blues scale."

他说：“我在实验这种算法，我有大音阶和简单的小音阶，但当我第一次演奏其中一种乐器的可用部分时，听起来可能是一种非常美妙的布鲁斯或轻快的声音。”“所以，我重新设计了算法，这样它就可以将数据转换成音乐布鲁斯音阶。”

Heyer says he was surprised when he realized for the first time that the rotation of our galaxy contains a rhythm — and that funky blues seemed to fit perfectly.

Hayer说他惊讶于第一次意识到星系的自转包含一种节奏，并且流行布鲁斯似乎能与之完美融合。